Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127134
Davide Tardozzi of Italy captured the World Championship Superbike race at Hockenheim aboard a Bimota. . ), World Championship Superbike Road Race Series: Round 3 Tardozzi wins, takes points lead in West Germany By Kel Edge HOCKENHEIM. W. GERMANY. MAY 8 Italian Davide T ardozzi stamped hisau thority and that of the Bimota on the superfast Hockenheim circuit in front of 35,000 excited fans as he totally dominated both legs of the West German round of the Superbike series. In . . d omg so, T ardozzi p~t himse If OZZl at the head of, the pom ts zable in front of Californian Fred Merke l who fail ed to score in either race. Hockenheim is one of those cir c u i ts wh ere horsepower really counts. a nd the main complaint of Birnota's competitors was a lack of speed. The only rivals to the Italian works Birnotas were the French ",:or!'s Hondas. ~ith endurance spe-. cla im s Alex Vieira .and Chnst~pher Bouhebenchallenging T ardozzi and his teammate. Stephane Mert ens. In his first Superbike Champ-ionship race of the year . Vieira piloted his Motul-Honda France ent ry to th e pole position with a qualifying tim e of two minutes. 11.70 seconds. just three-hundredths of a seco nd ahead of Tardozzi. Mertens wa s third fast est. followed by Bouheben, the other Honda France rider. Marco Lucch inelli wrestled the Ducati to sixth quickest. whi le Merkel and his Honda co uld only ' manage 23rd . totally different to hi s performance in th e previous round in Hungary. All the Suzukis suffered from a power di sadvantage and th e best qualifier was ' the hom e rider. Ernst Cs chwender, on 17th. Condi tions were absolutely perfe ct for th e first race and T ardozzi and Mertens got their Bimotas .off to a £lying start. By the time they entered th e stadium for the first tim e. Tardozzi led from Mertens. followed by Edwin Weibel . Viera . Farbrizio Pirovano and Roger Burnett. Mertens had a problem with his electronic fuel injection system and in slowing down inadvertently held up the pack running close behind. T his allowed Tardozzi to open up a comfortable lead. which he maintained to the checkered £lag. Mertens' bike suffered only tem porarily and he was able to hold on to second p lace. but Vieira was pressing hard and so was Bouheben and the rest of the pack. Burnett fought his way through to fifth . position. but his Honda did not have the steam to reel in Weibel for fourth. Behind the front running quintet of riders. there was a terrific scrap for the remainder of the top 10 positions. involving Lucchinelli, Joey Dunlop. Andreas Hofmann. Eric Delcamp and a rejuvenated Virginio Ferrari. As the race progressed Tardozzi extended his lead to three seconds from Bouheben and Viera . Mertens' problems continued and he slipped down the field to 13th place. At the flag it was a comfortable win for Tardozzi on the Bim o ta, with Frencli. endurance specialists Bouheben and Vieira in second and third place, respectively. Wei bel held on to fourth over Burnett. who in turn finished in fron t of Lucchinelli and Du nl op. Merkel's Honda was totally off the pace and the Californian finished a disappointing 17th. O f the Kawasakis, Delcam p rode superbly to fini sh n i nth just in front of Hondamounted Ferrari. The best Suzuki was only l Sth , in the hands of Gschwender. Mertens once a~in showed his quickness off the Iine at the start of the second race and led over team mate Tardozzi. Chasing hard were the Honda France bikes of Vieira and Bouheben, Weibel, Burnett. Lucchinel l i, Du n lo p . Delcamp. Kenny Irons and Pirovano. Chasing these was another group led by Ferrari and Hofmann. . Mertens' Bimota suddenly cut out. nearly causin~ the ensuing pack to collide with him. but by turning the ignition off and then back on again while giving the bike full throttle he was able to ~et running again and only dropped fro m second to third place. Tardozzi was once again ou t front 'with a three-second advantage while behind him seven or eigh t riders were disputing the rest of the leaderboard positions. Bouheben then dropped out with cra nkshaft problems. leaving fellow countryman Viera to challenge for a rostrum p lace as Mertens had recovered and grabbed second ahead of Vieira . Burnett had forced his way through to fourth position. ahead of a dueling pack of riders. So desperate was the' challenge for fifth posi tion that on th e last lap eight riders ent ered th e Sach s curve all fighting tooth and nail. Ferrari tried to outbrake everyo ne" but only succeede d in rammin g Irons who pushed Lucchinelli onto the dirt. Amazingly they all sta yed o n but the positions had sorted themselves out, leaving Mert ens in second behind winner Tardozzi, Vieira third, followed by Burnett, Dunop, Delcamp. . Irons . Pirovano , Ferrari and Hofmann. So Bimotas ruled the day. with Tardozzi turning in a superb twowin performance to put himself and Bimota at the top of the point standings. just three and one-half points ahead of a non-scoring Merkel. • - Results 1ST LEG: 1. Davide Tardczzl (Bim ): 2. Chr istopher Bouh eben (Hon); 3. Al ex Vier ir a (Hon ); 4 . Edw in W eibe l (Han ); 5 . Roger Bur nen (Han); 6. Marco LucchineU;(Due); 7. J oey Dun lop (Han); 8 . Andree s Hofm an n (Hon); 9. Eric Delcamp (Kaw) ; 10 . Virg in io V errari (Hon), 2ND LEG: 1. Tardozzi; 2. Stephane Menens (Bim ); 3. Vierira; 4. Burnett; 5 . Du nl op; 6. Delcamp; 7 . Kenny Irons (Han); B. Fabrizi o Pirovano (Yam ); 9. Ferrari; 10 . Hofmann .